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New York Giants’ Will Beatty Ranked No. 3 Offensive Tackle on Free-Agent Market

February 15th, 2013 at 4:20 PM By Paul Tierney

The New York Giants selected Will Beatty in the second-round of the 2009 NFL draft with the hope they could develop him into a starting left tackle. As the 2013 offseason gets ready to move into full swing, it's evident that Big Blue succeeded in their quest to make Beatty a trustworthy protector of Eli Manning's blind side. The problem is that the team may not have the money to re-sign him on the open market, which means that their investment would have been to merely groom Beatty to flourish under the wing of another NFL team. Today, Beatty was ranked the No. 3 free-agent offensive tackle by Pro Football Focus.

Ranked ahead of Beatty were Sebastian Vollemer of the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins' Jake Long. Although none of the three aforementioned players can be described as sure-fire locks to become elite left tackles, all of them will command significant interest on the free-agent market this offseason. Left tackle, similar to defensive end or quarterback, is a premier position that championship caliber teams covet.

In 2012, Beatty showed us, and the entire NFL, that he is capable or manning the left tackle position for almost every team in the league. He's not among the upper echelon of All-Pro caliber players that will garner a monster contract in free agency. In fact, that's actually beneficial from the Giants perspective at this point. If Beatty were playing at the level of a Ryan Clady or Joe Thomas, he would be as good as gone right now. The Giants don't need him to be a super star; they just need him to be good enough, and that's what he is.

However, as a left tackle, "good enough" can earn you a lot of money. The franchise tag for a left tackle will cost upwards of $9 million this offseason, which is not an outlandish sum for the anchor of a teams offensive line. However, for the Giants, it's a number that the team will be unlikely to afford. For Big Blue to have a realistic chance of fitting Beatty's salary into the already tight salary cap situation, he's going to have to sign a long-term deal for a lower annual salary.

After Jerry Reese concludes the process of clearing salary cap space, Beatty, along with Hakeem Nicks, will be among the Giants top priorities this offseason. With questions surrounding nearly every position on the offensive line, the Giants can not afford to lose a player that they spent several years developing into a starting left tackle. If another team overpays for Beatty's services, then the team will have no choice to but let him go. He's not good enough to break the bank for. However, until then, the Giants must be aggressive in pursuit of Beatty and get him back in Blue in 2013.

Yeah, no one with any grounding in math should buy in. They’re just guys with a web site. Their stats are often subjective decisions, and don’t take into account factors like scheme or game situations.

Plus there’s no objective way to measure if they’re right or wrong. It’s total opinion being passed off as fact to a gullible public. Nothing to verify or check. No predictive analysis. Nothing remotely scientific.

Outside of that … buy right in. Jump right on board cause like if enough people believe it then who needs science.

Maybe we can ‘crowd fund’ the contracts of players we like. Like if Cruz accepts the Giants offer then 100,000 of us will buy one of his fugly shirts? That could make up the difference … and avoid the salary cap. Of course then we’re stuck with that grotesque piece of … errrr … fashion. In the end Salvation Army clothes drop-off bins will be overflowing with them. Entire villages in the 3rd world will be wearing Young Whales. We’ll be finding dead al qaeda in the damn things. But at least we’ll still have Cruz!

I often don’t have the patience to write coherent posts, which may explain why I never get a response from this, but I’ll say it again:

The New York Giants pay PFF for advanced statistics. That means that they consider them in some manner. Which means PFF statistics have an impact on what the Giants do. How much of an impact? Who knows. But there’s some impact.

And those PFF stats had the Giants offensive line in the top 3rd of the league, mostly due to a high pass blocking rating. My theory is that Eli is the best pass blocker on the team and it’s not even close, but, we must accept that the PFF stats tell some story to the decision makers.

Nope, Eli. He knows what the defense is gonna do and sets blocks accordingly. He seldomly allows there to be more rushers than blockers, or if there are, it’s because he knows he’s got a route that will be open. He also won’t hold on to the ball or run all over the place. Ergo, very few sacks and hits.

If we accept that Eli has made guys like Steve Smith, we should also accept that he’s made his blockers look good too.

Ahh I misunderstood. I see your point, but regardless of how good Eli is at setting the blocks, if the guys on the OL can’t block the guys on the D-line, Eli’s gonna get killed. So although Eli is fantastic at doing those things that you mention, the OL has gotta be relatively good too.

After reading the Roger story, a bonus of 22.3M approved by 32 owners, including Mara & Tisch, imagine what that says about how much, how crazy, it must appear, not just to players, but any NFL fan, that the Commissioner did so much, that they give him a 22.3M dollar bonus? Tagliabue had to step in, you know the other Commissioner, made as a “consultant”, at about 4M, to get the nothing gate resolved, he should get a bonus from Roger, for taking the wheel of the ship and pulling it in to shore! WOW! So, you ask why Cruz, who’s home, thinking, hey let them tender me, I play one year, I’m free and look for 10M somewhere and even dances, and moves out of NJ, ya think? CT GIANT PUKE

WTF? No sense of humor around here. I just suggested that Will Iam Beatty would make a good Pontiff. Seems like a natural progression given his recent meteoric rise. If it were an election year I’d have gone with President. Nothing to do with any kids … geez.

How to verify or debunk PFF? Use your head and your scouts if a particular FA is important to you.

If other teams are into PFF, fine. If the Giants are into PFF that’s fine too. Every NFL team uses “OURLADS” scouting service. But the GM and staff make the picks.

The bottom line is no legit GM will take numbers over actually kicking the tires (AKA scouting) on a player. If other teams drink the PFF kool aid, smart teams will use those numbers and opinions to “play” the FA market.

Well yeah, if they send eight or more and there are only seven to block, Eli has to account for that. He should also have help identifying the defense pre snap from his center.

But now we’re getting back into why receivers must know all the options and possible routes so if Eli cant overcome that eight rusher, they can present as a safety valve (now that’s an old term) target.

Back to PFF: Every medical journal does not present a cure for deadly disease. But all doctors read them. Because you have to know what everyone else is seeing. I think PFF and many other publications are subscribed to by NFL teams. But this much is true about Dirt’s position. Nobody pays for empty info. Especially the tight fisted Mara’s….I mean Giants. You can BOOK IT.

I think the Giants don’t care about the $26.99 it costs to get PFF stats. They probably subscribe to all of them … and the draft publications too. It’s cheap, and what the hell … why not. There might be a nugget or two in there.

But they’re more food for discussion … and need to be taken for what they are. Like Mel Kiper’s stuff … or Todd McShay’s … it’s an opinion. Definitely worth looking at, but understand what you’re reading. When our pick comes around I don’t think Reese is checking with Kiper to see who he should select. Come contract time I doubt he’s letting PFF set the value of free agents. We’re talking a billion dollar corporation.